Ehran
RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East 1/20/2006 12:56:29 PM

are we sure turkey should really be considered part of the middle east?
i'd suggest that jordan should rank above saudi. saudis have some sweet toys but the jordanian army is a lot more professional imho.

Horsesoldier
RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East 1/20/2006 1:36:02 PM

>>In my view,
1 - Israel
2 - Turkey
3 - Egypt
4 - Saudi Arabia
5 - Jordan
6 - Oman
7 - Iran
8 - UAE
9 - Syria
10 - Kuwait<<
In terms of actual forces on the ground in the Middle East . . .
1) The United States
2) Israel
3) The United Kingdom
And after that a bunch of militarily incompetent (or at best semi-competent) states who would, at best, resemble a repeat of the 1991 Gulf War if they ran afoul of #1-3.
I'm not counting Turkey as part of the Middle East in this regard, parenthetically.

I think numbers are important and israel's population is very low so it can't support her troops if they move into arabian deserts..
+as a turk i'm very proud of seeing my country on the second place
but
what is the power of Oman and Jordan +is Saudi Arabia that much strong??
wow i learned too many things.

Israel's current standing force is around 180,000
With Reserves, it can go up to 600,000
Israel usually faces a war on multiple fronts and its biggest assets is its vast quantity of Armored Personnel Carriers which can shift entire divisions from one sector to another and which makes this a very lethal advantage against its Enemies.
Israel has the most powerful Air force in the Middle East and has one of the most highly trained Armies in the World.
The doctrine of Israel's Armed forces is an offensive Air Force and both defensive Army and Navy. The threat will always come from an arab agressor launching an attack on Israel. Israel's land army has limited offensive capability but the big achilles heel for its arab neighbours as all of their capitals are just a couple of hours drive from Israel.
Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, and Amman are all with in reach of a limited ground offensive of Israel's Army. As they will chose to defend its capitals, any Israeli offensive will be met with stiff resistence.
As a result Israel never really planned an Army with a long range force projection such as USA or UK.
Turkey on the other hand also has a higly disciplined and powerful military and guard's NATO's right flank and is also the only NATO country to border terrorist sponsoring nations of Syria and Iran and also Iraq.
It has a powerful fleet of Gunships, and the 2nd strongest Air Force in the middle East and also a very large Tank force.
The thing that propels Turkey to number 2 is the excellent training and doctrine of warfare which is on NATO standards.
Egypt has a large Army and is amply supplied by the Americans but will never be as technologically strong as the Israelis. To avoid war, USA has deliberately supplied the Egyptians with weaponry which is slightly below the technological advancement of the Israelis. Egypt does have the largest man power pool of any Arab country in the region and has fought many wars with Israel and has shaken out many flaws in its doctrine of War. It also has a good special forces which have fought numerous battles with Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Saudi Arabia has a lot of expensive toys. It just orderd Euro Fighters and a large fleet of F-15, F-16 and British Tornadoes. But as such, it lacks training, discipline, doctrine of warfare and capable generals to lead its forces into battles. Its special forces are just plain terrible. But it does have a lot of expensive toys which does give it a slight edge in Battle over other countries and also Saudi Arabia is gradually improving.
Oman is the same situaion. A former British colony, it buys a lot of british military hardware. It has British Tanks, British Warrior Armored Personnel Carriers, F-16 block 60 fighters, the most advanced F-16 fighters in the world. Its special forces are being trained by the British SAS and as a lot of gun boats from Britain as well and a very strong Anti-Aircraft Defense system.
Iran has a very large Army of over 1,000,000 men and thats it. Its Air-Force is obselete although it has a few modern Mig fighters. The US F-14 tomcats are almost inoperable. Most of its Navy comes from Russian Gunboats. It makes its own Tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers which according to Jane Magazine are nothing more than a souped up T-55 Russian Tanks. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are nothing more than the Feyadeen of Saadam Hussein and the Republican Guard. The Iranian army is woefully obselete. It does possess a lot of anti-tank and anti-air rockets but that threat can be easily neutralized. Iran's special forces are dedicated and athletically fitness wise are better than most middle eastern special forces but lack the equipment. Iran's Missiles, the Shabab are nothing more than a reverse engineered No-Dong Missile and is woefully inaccurate. It does not have a GPS guidance system and relies on mathematical longitutional/latitutional input to hit its targets. It does not have the capability to launch tactical strikes on troop concentrations which are moving but only on large stationary targets such as cities.
UAE is a small country with a small population and as such its Army is very small. It does possess a lethal air force, but relies totally on the British/American for security when it comes to dealing with any land battles. It also has a good special forces squad which as Navy Seal and British SAS training and a good coastal guard which mostly catch illegal immigrants than terrorits.
Syria has the same problem like Iran. But unlike Iran, Syria has no industry in which to manufacture its own weaponry. It still has outdated tanks from the Yom-Kippur War, an Air-Force in which only 10 Planes out of 500 could present a threat to Israel and the rest are totally obselete. Its ground forces due to high levels of corruption are terribly trained and led. At the moment, Syria besides playing the Hezbollah/Terrorist card presents no significant th